Entertainment

Postbox Combines the Best of Desktop and Web-Based E-mail Clients

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Quick Pitch: Postbox is a desktop mail application for Mac OS X and Windows designed to combat e-mail overload.

Genius Idea: In a world full of web based e-mail clients, it's easy to forget that sometimes, the best way to manage mail — especially for offline access — is with a traditional desktop client. Postbox is a desktop mail client, but the app adopts some of the features (such as tagging, quick and advanced searches, and conversation views) that some of the best webmail clients, such as Gmail, also use.

Founded by two former Mozilla heavyweights, Postbox is based on Mozilla technology — the same stuff that powers Firefox and Thunderbird. It's easy to make the mistake that Postbox is just a prettified version Thunderbird 3.1, but the truth is, the app — especially in Mac OS X — is much more feature-rich, has better system integration and uses less memory.

Postbox 2.1 was released in December and added some new features to the mix, including support for the new "Summarize Mode" on e-mail replies and forwards.

Think of Summarize Mode as an attractive, well formatted way to see who said what in a conversation. When testing Postbox 2.1, I was asked by one of my colleagues what mail client I was using because he was so impressed with how conversations were presented when replying to a long threaded e-mail.

Conversation Views, which were updated in Postbox 2.0, act kind of like Gmail's threaded message view, with the added benefit of grabbing conversations from various folders.

Postbox also features the ability to do quick replies to a message without needing to go to a separate compose window. This makes short replies simple and stress-free.

Perhaps my favorite feature of Postbox 2.1 is the fact that messages can be filtered by things like attachments, images, read status, contact, date, topics and to-do. This is exceptionally handy when trying to search for a certain type of photo or document.

In my test of Postbox 2.1, I let it import in all of my mail accounts from Apple Mail. This worked without a hitch. Conveniently, Postbox also offers quick access to posting messages to Twitter or Facebook.

All in all, Postbox 2.1 is a solid alternative to Apple Mail, Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird.

The only sticking point is the price. Postbox is not a free app; it's $39.99. To us, that price is fair, especially for the app's feature set.

Fortunately, you can try Postbox free for 30 days, and the company also offers a money-back guarantee. If you don't need some of the GTD features of the app, Postbox Express is available for free.

Do you use a desktop e-mail client? What is your favorite and why?

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.